Multimedia:
Heritage Weekend, Longwoods Conservation Area, April 30-May 2, 2010
This 21st annual Longwoods was a great success! There were approximately 850 school children on Friday; for the most part, the children were great and really interested in the many events. There were grades 2-3 and 7-8. Friday's weather was perfect and hot. A number of the children referred to Stride's wigwam as a sweat lodge, because it was so hot in there. They all enjoyed the food display, native sewing and decorations, music and drums, finger weaving, clothing and furs. Thanks to Strides, Hunter and Sable, Lynn and Dale, Kelli and Barry, Vaughn and Jen and Heather for coming out on Friday. Sable would also like to thank the mouse (or mice) that infested her storage of dried goods and created such a mess - but a wonderful laugh.
Saturday brought some rain and thunderstorm while Strides was trying to observe how the scrimmage was done and as it happened, she ended up being a referee! Notes for next year.
The Native and British parlé (flag of temporary truce in order to negotiate) was excellent. See some pictures of that in the link below. Hunter and Sable are very skilled at getting group involvement, and Matt (from the Kentucky group) played the role of the prisoner admirably. On Saturday and Sunday the crowds came to watch the parlé and got a real good look at history from a First Nations' point of view.
The battles on both days were also excellent. Our group was able to fight from the trees, and did not have to form rows beside the British (forming line was not something Natives were known to do). The guns all worked well and we now have a very strong alliance with Many Strings who fought with us. The British Indian Department also joined the fight under Hunter's leadership, and it was a great experience.
A highlight on Saturday was that Sable got a lovely new Jager (or Yager) rifle - one of her ancestor's had used the same model - and she let us play with it on Sunday after she had fired it that afternoon. It was very, very nice, as the pictures show! The rain held off on Sunday, and all the canvas was packed dry!
The event organizers did a wonderful job and came by a number of times to tell us how much our group was enjoyed by the children and guests. We appreciated being there very much. This is one event we don't want to miss!
Try the London Free Press for a few more pictures of this event.
http://www.lfpress.com/news/
BTW, many of our pictures from this weekend were taken by Vaughan.
Better than chocolate?
